Websense India ECRA Survey Report 2008

 INDIA: Websense India has come out with the findings of its Employee Computing Risk Assessment (ECRA) surveys conducted for 30 organizations across India covering around 40,000 employees. The organizations were from a wide range of sectors including IT/ ITeS, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, BFSI and Education.

Websense ECRA surveys, which are carried out at the companies' request, analyze how employees use the Internet and any resulting exposure to risk. They show the impact of employee Internet activity in an organisation and provides an assessment of the effectiveness of current security and policy measures.

Results are provided for Internet activity overall, and provide insight into four key risk areas: legal liability, security risks, network bandwidth and productivity loss.

The assessments were made possible using ECRA tools, which were installed seamlessly on the organization's network in probe mode.

Analysis

Security Risks : The importance of adapting and responding in real-time, to trends and threats in a Web 2.0 world, was evident during these assessments. Malicious Web Sites are Internet sites containing Malicious Mobile Code (MMC), such as viruses, Trojan Horses, worms, script attacks. They can be either dedicated phishing/pharming pages or in many cases reputable sites that had been compromised with hidden malicious code. Web based threats can cost enterprises millions of dollars in lost productivity, and repair costs.

The survey revealed that infected Internet sites were regularly accessed by all companies. Websense monitored 7,625,796 visits to URLs which hosted malicious code.

Freeware and software download, malicious Websites, potentially unwanted software, proxy avoidance, peer-to-peer file sharing emerged as top five security concerns of the organizations.

Legal Liability: While the Internet provides many benefits, companies also need to prevent access to inappropriate as well as malicious content. Internet-related legal liability risks may appear in many different forms, however, the most common potential risks come from pornography, software downloads, peer-to-peer media, and online gambling.

Peer-to-Peer File Sharing, adult material (adult content), proxy avoidance, illegal or questionable, gambling, hacking, adult material (Sex) emerged as top legal liabilities issues for organizations. Websense monitored 2,531,812 visits to URLs with legal liability issues

Network Bandwidth Loss: Internet usage in the enterprise directly impacts network resources by affecting quality of service and incurring additional hardware expenses. Areas in which these expenses accumulate include Internet Bandwidth, Network Storage, Cache and Proxy Hardware, and Desktop Storage.

Websense monitored a total Bandwidth loss of 805,552,744 KB (805 GB) in just 7 days in 30 organizations

Productivity Loss: While the Internet is often considered a productivity tool, allowing employees to spend countless hours surfing non-business related content also creates a significant drain on productivity. Because employees are an enterprise's most valuable resource, the loss in productivity can add up quickly.

Some of the most common productivity sinks include online shopping, entertainment, instant messaging/chat, and sports. Websense monitored a total time loss of 211338 hours by 40,000 employees in surfing non-business websites as categorized by organizations